During the latter stages of World War II Pforzheim, a town in south west Germany was bombed on a number of times. The largest raid, and one of the most devestating area bombardments of the war was carried out by by the Royal Air Force (RAF) on the evening of February 23, 1945. About one quarter of the town's population, over 17,000 people, were killed in the air raid, and about 83% of the town's buildings were destroyed. The town was thought by the Allies to be producing precision instruments for use in the German war effort and as transport centre for the movement of German troops. Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 17 million military deaths 8 million military deaths {{{notes}}} World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a military conflict that took place between 1939 and 1945. ... Pforzheim is a town of 119,000 inhabitants in the state of Baden-Württemberg, south-west Germany at the gate to the Black Forest. ... Aerial area bombardment is the policy of indiscriminate bombing of an enemys cities, for the purpose of destroying the enemys means of producing military materiel, communications, government centres and civilian morale. ... The Royal Air Force (often abbreviated to RAF) is the air force branch of the British Armed Forces. ... February 23 is the 54th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... In general, allies are people or groups that have joined an alliance and are working together to achieve some common purpose. ...

Minor raids

The first Allied air raid on Pforzheim took place on April 1 1944 When the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) bombers carried out a raid in which the damage was comparatively small and 95 people were killed. Further attacks by the USAAF followed. The largest of these attacks was on 24 December (Christam Eve) and on 21 January 1945.^[1] April 1 is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 274 days remaining. ... The United States Army Air Forces, or USAAF, was a part of the U.S. military during World War II. The direct precursor to the U.S. Air Force, the USAAF formally existed between 1941 and 1947. ... December 24 is the 358th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (359th in leap years). ... January 21 is the 21st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

The RAF also carried out a number of night time nuisance raids on Pforzheim using de Havilland Mosquito light bombers. The raids, consisting of around half a dozen Mosquitos, would force the Luftwaffe, the German airforce, to respond. They also helped confuse the German defences making it more difficult for the Germans to identify major raids. In doing so these raids diverted resources away from the main bomber streams. These nuisance raids affected the citizens of the targeted cities, driving them into shelters and distrubing their sleep. There were three consecutive raids on the nights of October 2/3, October 3/4 and October 4/5 1944 with a further three raids in October and one in November 1944. Across all these raids the RAF lost one aircraft.^[2] The correct title of this article is de Havilland Mosquito. ... The Deutsche Luftwaffe or (help· info) (German: Air Arm, IPA: [luftvafə]) is the commonly used term for the German air force. ... A bomber stream was a tactic developed by the Royal Air Force (RAF) Bomber Command to overwhelm the German aerial defences of the Kammhuber Line during World War II. The Kammhuber Line consisted of three layers of zones about 32km long (north-south) and 20km wide (east-west). ... October 2 is the 275th day (276th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 90 days remaining. ... October 3 is the 276th day of the year (277th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... October 4 is the 277th day of the year (278th in Leap years). ...

Reasons for the main raid

A report compiled for RAF Bomber Command dated 28 June 1944, stated that Pforzheim was "one of the centres of the German jewellery and watch making trade and is therefore likely to have become of considerable importance into the production of precision instruments [of use in the war effort]" An Allied report issued in August 1944 stated that "almost every house in this town centre is a small workshop" and that there were few larger factories in the south and one in the north of the city centre. An attack on the city would destroy the "builtup area, the associated industries and rail facilities". There were no war-crucial targets only war-relevant ones.^[3] RAF Bomber Command was the organisation that controlled the RAFs bomber forces. ... (Some entries on this page have been duplicated on August 1. ...

In November 1944 Pforzheim was placed for the first time on a target list of the Allied Forces but with the lowest priority of five categories. In that report the city is called very dedicated for a raid, because the road and rail communications through the old city was known to be very inflammable. Pforzheim was used in the transfer of troops. ^[4]

Main raid

The large raid that almost completely destroyed the inner city district occured on the evening of February 23 1945. The first bombs were dropped at 19:52 and the last one at 20:10. The attack on "Yellowfin", the code name for Pforzheim, included 379 aircraft. February 23 is the 54th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ...

The bombers were 367 Avro Lancasters of No. 1, No. 6, and No. 8 groups along with, one Film Unit Lancaster, and 13 Mosquitos of No. 8 Group. The master bomber was Major Edwin Swales, DFC a South African, aged 29, who won Bomber Command's last Victoria Cross of the war for his actions on this night. Despite severe dammage to his plane he remained over the target for the whole of the raid but he was killed when his Lancaster crashed in Belgium on the return flight.^[5] The Avro Lancaster was a four-engine World War II bomber aircraft made initially by Avro for the Royal Air Force (RAF). ... Number 1 Group of the Royal Air Force is one of the three groups in RAF Strike Command. ... No. ... Major Edwin Swales, (July 3, 1915 – February 23, 1945) was a South African pilot and war hero of the Second World War. ... The Distinguished Flying Cross (D.F.C.) is a decoration for courage shown in air combat. ... Victoria Cross medal, ribbon, and bar. ...

The bomber stream attacked from a height of 8,000 feet (2,400 m). It dropped almost half a million bombs with a total weight of 1,825 tonnes. The bombs were a by now standard mix of high explosive and phosphorus incendiary bombs. The core area of the town suffered immediate destruction and a firestorm broke out, reaching its most devastating phase after 10 minutes from the start of the raid. The smoke over the town rose to about 3,000 meters high, and the returning bomber crews could see the glare of the fire up to 160 kilometers away.^[6] A bomber stream was a tactic developed by the Royal Air Force (RAF) Bomber Command to overwhelm the German aerial defences of the Kammhuber Line during World War II. The Kammhuber Line consisted of three layers of zones about 32km long (north-south) and 20km wide (east-west). ... This article is about the chemical element. ... Incendiary refers to any fire that has been deliberately set. ... A firestorm is the mass movement of air resulting from fire, creating a fire of extreme intensity over a wide area. ...

Twelve aircraft of the bomber fleet did not return to their bases. Ten of them were shot down by Luftwaffe fighters stationed at Sachsenheim and the two others were assumed to have been accidentially hit by "friendly" bombs and crashed not far from Pforzheim.^[7]

Impact of the attack

The German Army Report of February 24, 1945 devoted only two lines to reporting the bombardment: "In the early evening hours of February 23, a forceful British attack was directed at Pforzheim". The post-war British Bombing Survey Unit estimated that 83 per cent of the town's built-up area was destroyed, "probably the greatest proportion in one raid during the war".^[8] February 24 is the 55th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... February 23 is the 54th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ...

In an area about 3 kilometers long and 1.5 kilometers wide, all buildings were reduced to rubble. 17,800 citizens were officially counted as dead and thousands were injured. People died from the immediate impact of explosions, from burns due to burning phosphorus materials that seeped through basement windows into the cellars of houses where they hid, from lack of oxygen and poisonous gases, and from collapsing walls of houses. Some of them drowned in the Enz or Nagold rivers into which they had jumped while trying to escape from the burning phosphorus materials in the streets but even the rivers were burning as the phosphorous floated on the water.^[9] Neuraminidase ribbon diagram An enzyme (in Greek en = in and zyme = blend) is a protein, or protein complex, that catalyzes a chemical reaction and also controls the 3D orientation of the catalyzed substrates. ... The village Gündringen - a small district of Nagold Nagold is a town in southern Germany bordering the Northern Black Forest. ...

After the attack, about 30,000 people had to be fed by public makeshift kitchens because their housing had been destroyed. Almost 90% of the buildings in the core city area had been destroyed. Many Pforzheim citizens were buried in common graves at Pforzheim's main cemetery because they could not be identified. There are many graves of complete families. The labour office of 1942 listed 2,980 foreigners in Pforzheim, how many died in the bombings is not recorded.^[10]

The inner city districts were severely depopulated. According to the State Statistics Bureau (Statistisches Landesamt), in the Market Square area (Marktplatzviertel) in 1939 there were 4,112 registered inhabitants, in 1945 none (0). In the Old Town area (Altstadtviertel) in 1939 there were 5,109 inhabitants, in 1945 only 2 persons were still living there. In the Leopold Square area, in 1939 there were 4,416 inhabitants, in 1945 only 13. ^[11]

Post war

Rather than rebuild the centre of Pforzheim on the old street plan, the main thoroughfares were broadened after the war. Most of the reconstruction which was in the 1950s, used styles of architecture fashionable in post war Germany. The rubble from the destruction was heaped into a large high mound on the outskirts of the town covered with soil and vegetation, and capped with a building called the "Wallberg". As with other German cities which have similar mounds, it remains visible memorial to the destuction visited on the city during World War II. The mound to the West of Berlin is known as "Teufelsberg" (Devil's Mountain), Pforzheim's is known as "Monte Scherbelino".^[12] Teufelsberg (German for Devils Mountain) is a hill in Berlin, Germany, in former West Berlin, rising about 80 meters above the surrounding Brandenburg plain, currently parkland, Grunewald Park. ...

References

• Official RAF Web Site: Campaign Diary October 1944
• Official RAF Web Site: Campaign Diary February 1945
• Pforzheim - 23 February 1945 by Christian Groh. In German. http://babelfish.altavista.com translates the web page from German into a form of English which can be used to verify facts.
• report of magazine 'Stern' In German.
• map which shows the destroyed part of the town
• short movie
• CD-ROM Pforzheim: Gersten - Zerstört - Heute (before - destroyed - after). Around 1000 photos and movies. Medienzentrum Pforzheim.

February 23 is the 54th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Notes

1. ^  References Christian Groh Pforzheim
2. ^  References RAF Web Site: Campaign Diary October 1944
3. ^  References Groh
4. ^  References Groh
5. ^  Yellowfin from References Groh, other information from References RAF Web Site: Campaign Diary February 1945.
6. ^  The tonnage of bombs and the height of th raid can be found in the Reference RAF Web Site: Campaign Diary February 1945, The number of bombs and the other details do not appear in the current references.
7. ^  The RAF gives the number of bombers lost for all raids that night, but not the specifics for this raid. None of the current written references list list information, but the figures are in line with total RAF losses.
8. ^  References 83% RAF Web Site: Campaign Diary February 1945, The German army report was copied from the Pforzheim page and is not sourced.
9. ^  The number of dead 17,600 is taken from References Groh. The rest of the paragraph is from a source not in the references.
10. ^  The Forign labour taken from References Groh. No reference for the 30,000 etc.
11. ^  These figures are simiar to References GrohGroh, but must be from another source which is not recoreded.
12. ^  The information about Pforzheim from References Groh except for the name of the building on top.

The Royal Air Force (often abbreviated to RAF) is the air force branch of the British Armed Forces. ... Strategic Bombing during World War II was unlike anything the world had previously witnessed. ... Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 17 million military deaths 8 million military deaths {{{notes}}} World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a military conflict that took place between 1939 and 1945. ... RAF Bomber Command was the organisation that controlled the RAFs bomber forces. ... Bomber Command is an organizational military unit, generally subordinate to the air force of a country. ... Strategic bombing is a military strategey used in a total war style campaign that attempts to destroy the economic ability of a nation-state to wage war. ... The aerial bombing of cities became a common tactic in World War II. // Balkan Wars The first ever aerial bombardment was on October 16, 1912 by a Bulgarian military airplane during the Balkan Wars. ... Archibald Henry Macdonald Sinclair, 1st Viscount Thurso (then Sir Archibald Sinclair) (October 22, 1890-June 15, 1970) was leader of the UK Liberal Party from 1935 until 1945. ... RAF Air Chief Marshal Charles Portal (left) and Polish Commander in Chief Władysław Sikorski (right) visit an airbase of the 300th Polish Bomber Squadron in England. ... Air Chief Marshal Sir Norman Howard Bottomley KCB CIE DSO AFC (September 18, 1891 - August 13, 1970) was the Yorkshire-born successor to Arthur Bomber Harris as Commander-in-Chief of Royal Air Force Bomber Command in 1945. ... Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris Sir Arthur Travers Harris, 1st Baronet (April 13, 1892 - April 5, 1984), commonly known as Bomber Harris, and often within the RAF as Butcher Harris, was commander of RAF Bomber Command and later a Marshal of the Royal Air Force during the latter half... Arthur William Tedder, 1st Baron Tedder (July 11, 1890 - June 3, 1967) was a signficant British Marshal of the Royal Air Force. ... Professor Frederick Alexander Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell (April 5, 1886 - July 3, 1957) was a physicist who became an influential scientific adviser to the British government and a close associate of Winston Churchill. ... The Bavarian city of Augsburg, Germany, was bombed twice by the RAF during World War II 1942 The Augsburg air raid on 17 April 1942 was one of the most daring of World War II. The first squadron to take delivery of the 4-engined Avro Lancaster was No. ... Operation Chastise was the official name for the attacks on German dams on May 17, 1943 in World War II using a specially developed bouncing bomb. The attack was carried out by Royal Air Force No. ... The term Battle of Berlin is sometimes restricted to the Royal Air Force for a bombing campaign on Berlin and other cities between the night of November 18 1943 and March 1944. ... The City of Cologne was bombed in 262 separate air raids by the Allies during World War II. During the war the Royal Air Force (RAF) bombed Cologne more than thirty one times. ... The bombing of Dresden by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) between February 13 and February 15, 1945 remains one of the more controversial events of World War II. Historian Frederick Taylor says: The destruction of Dresden has an epically tragic quality... The large port city of Hamburg was very heavily bombed many times by the RAF and the USAAF during World War II. An Avro Lancaster over Hamburg - the curved streaking is caused by a combination of the movement of the photographing aircraft and the long exposure time required for taking... The city of Kassel in Germany was severely bombed during World War II. Kassel is in the northern part of the federal state of Hesse, between Frankfurt (190 km south), and Hanover (160 km north). ... The Bristol Type 142M Blenheim was a high-speed light bomber used extensively in the early days of World War II, built by Bristol Aeroplane Company. ... Halifax W1057 ZA-X of No. ... The Handley Page HP.52 Hampden was a twin-engine medium bomber of the Royal Air Force that was one of the main front-line bombers at the start of World War II. Along with the Whitley and Wellington bombers, the Hampden bore the brunt of the early bombing war... The Avro Lancaster was a four-engine World War II bomber aircraft made initially by Avro for the Royal Air Force (RAF). ... The correct title of this article is de Havilland Mosquito. ... The Stirling was a World War II heavy bomber design built by Short Brothers. ... The Vickers Wellesley was a 1930s light bomber built by Vickers for the Royal Air Force. ... The Vickers Wellington was a twin-engine, medium bomber designed in the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey, by Vickers-Armstrongs Chief Designer, R.K. Pierson. ... The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.38 Whitley was one of three twin-engine, front-line medium bombers in service with the Royal Air Force at the outbreak of World War II. Along with the Handley Page Hampden and the Vickers Wellington, it bore the brunt of the early fighting, seeing... Window was the WWII UK codename for a system called chaff, intended to confuse German radar. ... An early H2S picture of the Pembroke and Milford Haven area The H2S radar was used in bombers of RAF Bomber Command. ... GEE (short for Grid and pronounced simply as G) or AMES Type 7000 was a British radio navigation system used during World War II; the ideas in GEE were developed by the Americans into the LORAN system. ... For the musical instrument of the woodwind family see Oboe Oboe was based on radio transponder technology. ... G-H was a radio navigation system developed by Britain during World War II to aid RAF Bomber Command. ... Monica was a range-only tail warning radar for bombers, introduced by the RAF in June 1943. ... The Blockbuster was the name of the largest conventional bomb used in World War II by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Force (USAAF). ... Tallboy bomb The Tallboy was a bomb developed by Barnes Wallis and brought into operation by the British in 1944. ... A British 22,000 lb Grand Slam bomb The Grand Slam (Earthquake) bomb was a very large bomb developed by the British aeronautical engineer Barnes Wallis in late 1944. ... A bomber stream was a tactic developed by the Royal Air Force (RAF) Bomber Command to overwhelm the German aerial defences of the Kammhuber Line during World War II. The Kammhuber Line consisted of three layers of zones about 32km long (north-south) and 20km wide (east-west). ... The Pathfinder squadrons of the Royal Air Force were elite squadrons of RAF Bomber Command during World War II. During World War II the RAF Bomber Command practiced mainly night bombing. ... The United States Army Air Forces, or USAAF, was a part of the U.S. military during World War II. The direct precursor to the U.S. Air Force, the USAAF formally existed between 1941 and 1947. ... The Deutsche Luftwaffe or (help· info) (German: Air Arm, IPA: [luftvafÉ™]) is the commonly used term for the German air force. ...

edit	World War II city bombing
Area bombardment • Terror bombing Augsburg • Berlin • Belfast • Belgrade • Birmingham • Cologne • Coventry • Darwin • Dresden • Frampol • Greenock Hamburg • Kassel • Kobe • London • Liverpool • Manchester • Pforzheim • Rotterdam • Sheffield • Tokyo Warsaw • Wieluń Strategic Bombing during World War II was unlike anything the world had previously witnessed. ... Survivor of German aerial bombardment of Warsaw This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... Aerial area bombardment is the policy of indiscriminate bombing of an enemys cities, for the purpose of destroying the enemys means of producing military materiel, communications, government centres and civilian morale. ... Terror bombing is a strategy of deliberately bombing civilian targets and strafing civilians in order to break the morale of the enemy and make the civilian population of the enemy panic. ... The Bavarian city of Augsburg, Germany, was bombed twice by the RAF during World War II 1942 The Augsburg air raid on 17 April 1942 was one of the most daring of World War II. The first squadron to take delivery of the 4-engined Avro Lancaster was No. ... The term Battle of Berlin is sometimes restricted to the Royal Air Force for a bombing campaign on Berlin and other cities between the night of November 18 1943 and March 1944. ... The Belfast Blitz was an event that occurred on Easter Tuesday, April 15, 1941, when 200 German Luftwaffe bombers attacked Belfast, Northern Ireland. ... he bombing of Belgrade occurred in the initial phases of World War II when German forces bombed the city in preperation for the invasion of Yugoslavia. ... The Birmingham Blitz was the heavy bombing of the city of Birmingham in the United Kingdom during the Second World War. ... The City of Cologne was bombed in 262 separate air raids by the Allies during World War II. During the war the Royal Air Force (RAF) bombed Cologne more than thirty one times. ... The twin spires of Coventrys skyline This article is about the history of Coventry, England. ... The two Japanese air raids on Darwin, Australia on February 19, 1942 were by far the biggest ever attack by a foreign power against the Australian mainland. ... The bombing of Dresden by the British Royal Air Force (RAF) and the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) between February 13 and February 15, 1945 remains one of the more controversial events of World War II. Historian Frederick Taylor says: The destruction of Dresden has an epically tragic quality... The Bombing of Frampol happened during the Polish Defence War of 1939. ... The Greenock Blitz is the name given to two nights of intensive bombing of the town of Greenock by the Luftwaffe in May 1941. ... Firestorm in Hamburg Operation Gomorrah was the military codename for a series of air raids conducted by the Royal Air Force on the city of Hamburg beginning in the end of July 1943. ... The city of Kassel in Germany was severely bombed during World War II. Kassel is in the northern part of the federal state of Hesse, between Frankfurt (190 km south), and Hanover (160 km north). ... On March 17th, 1945, three hundred and thirty-one American B-29 bombers launched a firebombing attack against the city of Kobe, Japan. ... German bomber over the Surrey Docks, London The Blitz was the sustained and intensive bombing of the United Kingdom by Nazi Germany during 1940–1941. ... The Liverpool Blitz was the heavy and sustained bombing of the city of Liverpool in the United Kingdom during the Second World War. ... The Manchester Blitz was the heavy bombing of the city of Manchester in the United Kingdom during the Second World War. ... The bombing of Rotterdam occured in the initial phases of World War II when German forces invaded the Netherlands. ... The Sheffield Blitz is the name given to the worst nights of bombing in Sheffield, England during the Second World War. ... The U.S. bombing of Tokyo during World War II took place between 1942 and 1945. ... The Bombing of Warsaw in World War II refers both to the terror bombing campaign on Warsaw by Luftwaffe during the September Campaign (siege of Warsaw and to the German bombing raids during the Warsaw Uprising. ... The bombing of WieluÅ„ in World War II refers to the terror bombing of the Polish town of WieluÅ„ by the German Luftwaffe. ...